Speaking of flying I spent a couple of days working on the 9 this week. I have had heated seats installed in the airplane from the beginning but I didn't have them wired up. Well this week I started the process of making that happen. Last weeks flights proved to me that a little seat heat would do wonders in making some of those cold flights more bearable. I didn't quite get to the point of hooking the seats up because I have to pull the seat panels and that is a long job that may have to wait until I do the annual inspection in the next couple of months. However, I now have power available.
Another interesting thing happened with regard to the 9 this week. Part of the rewire process is creating an "Essential" buss of power. This bus has two power feeds, a normal from the master switch and a backup that comes directly from the battery through a fuse and a special switch. On this bus I have moved both of my ignition power leads as well as power for the electric fuel pump and the G5 backup EFIS. In an emergency where I lose the Master solenoid I can still fly the airplane. However, the unexpected benefit to this change was that the airplane starts MUCH faster now. In the past when I went to start the airplane it always took a couple of seconds to fire. When I started it for the first time after making the change the engine fired immediately! The only thing I can figure is that when I engage the starter my battery voltage is dropping far enough that the VPX is rebooting. Since my ignition power was coming from the VPX they were not getting power until the VPX completed its boot cycle which is very short. I may have to reach out to Chad at Vertical Power and see if anybody else has reported this.
Finally, related to the work on the 9 I had to do a test flight once all the work was done. So, Harry and I saddled up and flew to Oregon to pick up a few supplies for some Apple Pie Moonshine. Can't wait to see how that brew tastes!
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| The leading edge is attached and riveted on the left wing. The only step left to complete in this picture is riveting the top side and Ben was nice enough to stop by and help me do that on New Years day. :-) |
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| Leading edge installed on the left wing with the same caveat that the top rivets are yet to be done in this picture. |
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| Ben took this picture of me and the wings after we had finished the riveting of the leading edge and stored both wings in the cradle. Thanks again Ben! |
